Paradise (1991 film)

Willard Young is a ten year old boy who goes going to a private school on a scholarship. However, for some reason he is afraid of everything around him. He has not seen his father for so long, he thinks he is away on sea duty. One day, his mother sends him to the small yet dull town. It turns out he is staying with an old friend of his mother's named Lily Reed and her husband Ben. While Willard is bored and out and about looking for something to do, he meets a nine year old girl named Billie Pike. She herself does not know who her father is or what he does, and has a mother who just cannot keep up with a relationship. But it is not long before Willard and Billie both become something neither one of them has ever really had or been: a best friend. While their friendship blossoms, Ben and Lily struggle come to terms with their own personal struggles. Years ago their infant son died accidentally, and they had been suffering ever since. Lily, in particular, has been unable to piece together her life since the tragedy, and even though Ben struggles get through to her, Lily is too entrenched in grief and guilt to respond. But stemming from the often endearing time that they both have been spending with Willard, they slowly begin to mend their relationship. Willard starts to come terms with his own fears, including the shattering truth that his father was never on sea duty, but had in fact left his mother for another woman. As for Billie, when she tries to make contact with a skating ring teacher whom she believes is her father, he flat out rejects her. Although her heart is broken, she must come to accept that she does not have a father anymore. The question is, will anyone learn to accept what they have and what they never did? They must learn this for themselves, all the while trying to find the one thing that leads to salvation and redemption: Paradise.